News
Look up, way up. A new canopy walkway at UBC Botanical Garden allows visitors to take a stroll 20 metres off the ground amidst the garden’s 100-year-old fir trees. If they’re lucky, visitors might get a glimpse of a piliated woodpecker tapping out a rhythm on a nearby trunk, or an owl wondering who is […]
At a standing-room-only panel at the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education congress held at the University of Windsor in June, contributors read from Silences, a book of essays collected by the Council of 3M National Teaching Fellows and centred on the silences in teaching that can “threaten, inspire and shape teaching and […]
It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it. Actually, University of Windsor professor Aaron Fisk doesn’t think his job is really all that dirty, even though it was showcased on a recent episode of the Discovery Channel’s much watched Dirty Jobs show. The program features jobs that have particularly unpleasant aspects which the […]
Millennium study provides details on the amount of need-based aid and merit scholarships institutions award to undergraduate students
In August 1999, hunters traveling along a glacier edge in Tatshenshini-Alsek Park in British Columbia found the frozen remains of a young man. With him were a woven hat, the remnants of a squirrel robe, some tools and a medicine pouch. The glacier fell within the traditional territory of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, […]
What are the potential risks of nanotechnology? How can we extract gas hydrates in a socially and environmentally acceptable manner? These are two of the thorny issues ruminated upon recently by expert panels convened by the Council of Canadian Academies. The council, which began operations in the spring of 2006, appears to be picking up […]
U of Calgary and 80 volunteer instructors provide training they’ll need in South Sudan
We all know that the transition to university or college can be difficult for young adults. It’s often their first substantial time away from home and can be filled with much stress and anxiety. Stan Kutcher, a professor of medicine at Dalhousie University and holder of the Sun Life Financial Chair in Adolescent Mental Health, […]
Researcher uses earthquake data to investigate the planet’s interior
It might have looked like just another academic speaking gig for Sue Horton, complete with a nice trip to Denmark. But when the Wilfrid Laurier University economist proposed some solutions to child malnutrition, she quickly found herself vaulted into international prominence. That’s because the group she was addressing was the Copenhagen Consensus, a highly focused […]
Some education groups oppose and others cautiously support legislation to modernize Canada’s copyright law
Mount Allison University is partnering with Moncton’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to create an “animal house” residence in which live-in students will provide care for previously homeless dogs, cats and rabbits during the school year. David Rowland, Mount Allison’s dean of students, says the project will allow students to give their […]
Late last year, the University of British Columbia adopted a statement of principles designed to encourage UBC research innovations to be made available at low cost to poor countries. In May, the statement had its first tangible success, with UBC licensing a a company to commercially develop a drug for the industrialized world, in exchange […]
Sooner or later, quality of teaching and research could suffer, says AUCC report.
But university still faces challenges from the academy
What does the term “second life” mean to you? Perhaps it creates images of online games or the life you’ll have when you retire. For a select group of Canada Research Chair holders who spoke recently at a special panel discussion, “second life” was handy shorthand for the wide range of research they do to […]
Changes signal the end of university colleges in name, but not spirit
A program that helps refugees to start a new life on Canadian campuses hits a milestone this summer. The Student Refugee Program, run by World University Service of Canada, will welcome its 1,000th student this August. The program, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, targets refugees who’ve fled their homeland and sponsors them so […]
A referendum on the fate of one of Canada’s oldest student newspapers wasn’t even close in the end, but the students who publish the paper said they shouldn’t have had to go to the polls in the first place. The McGill Daily, which began publishing in 1911, and its sister publication Le Délit received a […]
But bill isn’t expected to affect universities that use animals for teaching and research